London: With the deadline just a week away, Iran, the United States and other world powers are converging in Vienna to reach a historic, comprehensive agreement that will mark the closure of the 12-year-long deadlock on Iran's nuclear programme.
The discussions are scheduled to begin on Tuesday. Compromises have been found on previously contentious issues and detailed texts of different versions of the final deal have been prepared. However, diplomats said that some political decisions over Iran's capacity to enrich Uranium in the future and the sequence in which international sanctions will be lifted which are to be made in national capitals are still pending, reported The Guardian.
Several leading arms-control experts have argued that the residual obstacles are more political in nature than substantial and driven by the need of President Barack Obama's administration and President Hassan Rouhani's reformist government in Iran to reassure conservatives at home, rather than by the actual requirements of Iran's nuclear energy programme or genuine concerns over nuclear nonproliferation.
There is also dissent among the six world nations involved in the negotiations with France opposing nuclear concessions more than the other five (the US, UK, Germany, Russia and China).
However, a collapse in the negotiations will have serious and rapid ramifications as the US Congress is poised to impose a new wave of sanctions on Iran. It will be difficult for Obama to sustain a veto over new punitive measures in a Senate that is thronged with Republicans.
In response, hardliners in Iran will possibly demand an end to the partial freeze on the Iranian nuclear programme which was negotiated in an interim deal years ago. Mutual escalation may easily push the 12-year-old stalemate back to the brink of war.
